Soaring Prices Curb Availability of Tetanus Vaccine Health:
Counties face cuts in immunization programs because state has been unable to
buy adequate supplies.
The
state has been able to purchase and distribute just a third of its normal
supply of tetanus/diphtheria vaccine--used mainly for unvaccinated
schoolchildren--because the manufacturer has quadrupled the price. As a result, counties
have been forced to either dramatically cut their immunization programs or
purchase the extra vaccine at great cost, officials said Monday. "If we're not
able to give it to those children who require it, we could possibly be
building up a susceptible population," said John Dunajsky, assistant
immunization branch chief for the state Department of Health Services. "There has been
very little tetanus among children in schools since laws were passed
[requiring immunization]. But if this continues, there is the possibility of
building up a population of kids who aren't protected." The problem is
compounded by a severe nationwide shortage of the vaccine, which is now
produced by only one company, Aventis Pasteur of Swiftwater, Pa., the
American arm of the French firm Aventis SA. Aventis Pasteur says
it was forced to raise prices in 2000--affecting vaccines earmarked for use
this year--because the vaccine was underpriced and the company had spent
millions to modernize its manufacturing plants. California, which
typically purchases about 210,000 doses of the vaccine each year and
distributes them to county health departments, was able to buy just 70,025
doses for use in late 2000 and early 2001, said Natalie Smith, immunization
branch chief of the state health department. Counties generally
use the vaccines to immunize schoolchildren who did not receive them as
infants, as well as youths and adults who have been exposed to tetanus or
need booster shots. The vaccine is different from the one administered to
infants; there is only a slight shortage of that vaccine, which protects
against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus. Because the state has
cut back so severely on its purchases of the vaccine, Smith and her staff are
allowing counties to use it for children only. To make matters
worse, the federal government, which until 1999 purchased the vaccine at
discounted rates and then resold it to states, no longer does so. Officials
say the price has risen so high that it outstrips a federal limit on prices
that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are allowed to pay for
immunizations. "We used to have
a stockpile" of the tetanus/diphtheria vaccine," said Robert
Snyder, who is in charge of purchasing vaccines for the CDC's National
Immunization Program. "But that changed when I could no longer buy
it." Now, Snyder said,
immunization programs in all 50 states are suffering. California, with its
large populations of uninsured residents and immigrants who may not have been
immunized as children, has been hit the hardest, he said. The shortage and
price hikes have affected private doctors and hospitals as well. They too
have begun rationing the vaccine. Aventis Pasteur has
given priority in distribution to emergency rooms
Health:
Counties face cuts in immunization programs because state has been unable to
buy adequate supplies.